The business challenge

The Innovation Team of a large food company turned to Venture IQ to perform a sector deep dive. In order to define their innovation strategy they asked us to map the innovation landscape of the FoodTech field.

How Venture IQ helped

Using our domain name databases, other information sources and our collaboration tool Catalist, Venture IQ performed an Industry search to map innovation trends. After an initial broad search, together with the Innovation Team, Venture IQ defined the innovation topics and the client decided which topic they were most interested in. Venture IQ performed a deep dive in these selected search areas by interviewing the companies, plotting their food products on a value chain and presenting the search results to the Innovation Team.

The results

Based on the search results and insights from interviews, the Innovation Team formed their strategy and decided that partnering with several of the startups is the best way to test the new concepts. The first product resulting from one of the partnerships is currently available on the market.

Use a technology search to efficiently find all potential acquisition targets in your industry.

The business challenge

Our client, a large established player in the industrial engineering, decided to enhance its data analytics capabilities by acquiring smaller tech players. The client identified a small list of potential acquisition targets through its own network, however, a more complete overview on the market was desired before making any investment decisions. The Strategy Team of the client turned to Venture IQ to perform a Technology search to identify potential acquisition targets.

How Venture IQ helped

Using our startup database and other external information sources, Venture IQ performed a technology search to find and select potential acquisition targets. All players active in the technology segment of choice by the client would be in scope in the first round. The long list of 180+ data analytics companies was shared via Catalist to the Strategy Team, to review the top 50 most relevant results. After the first round of input by the team, Venture IQ and the Strategy Team further refined the search criteria to zoom in to the water sector. This deep dive phase resulted in a curated list of 50+ highly relevant data analytics leads in water to further investigate.

The results

The Strategy Team used the curated list of startups to identify and select acquisition targets. Currently, the first acquisition is being closed. The Strategy team will continue processing the rest of the leads.

Want to start scouting?

Use a peer search to ensure your investment target is the best choice amongst its peers

Venture IQ quickly checks if your investment target is the best amongst its peers.

The business challenge

Once you meet a potential investment target, all the boxes should be checked before signing the deal. Besides term sheet negotiations and due diligence, a competitor landscape is essential to check if your target is the best lead amongst its peers. As a (corporate) VC, you can turn to Venture IQ for a quick peer search. And that is what our client in the agriculture market did when they considered to invest in an early stage biotech startup.

How Venture IQ helped

Using our patent database, domain name databases and other information sources, Venture IQ performed a quick peer search on the investment target. The list of companies found was analysed based on the client’s criteria and ranked accordingly in a presentation to share to the client’s investment committee. The client was working under a tight deadline in the due diligence process, so Venture IQ delivered the report with the in-depth analysis within a week and performed some additional calls with the most interesting peers for more information on their products and developments.

The results

Insights from Venture IQ’s detailed report and interviews undermined the unique value proposition of their target and made the client feel less convinced in signing the deal. They ended up talking to the company that came out as best party from the peer search. Currently they are testing their product which is already on the market, to consider joint development of a tailored product for their own application.